Thursday, February 25, 2016

Missed By That Much

My standard line about my job is that it is very cushy, except when it's not. Last night was a combination of cushy and scary... lower New York State was on the verge of the storm which battered Virginia. We experienced winds speeds up to 50 mph (about 80 kph), accompanied by intermittent torrential rains. I usually spend a lot of time on the job outdoors (typically anywhere from one-quarter to two-thirds of my shift, depending on job duties and weather conditions), but while dangerous conditions prevail, I limit my exposure to harm. Last night, I only conducted two inspection tours of the property. So, it was a cushy night (I sat in my office drinking coffee and writing) with some scary episodes (I had limited exposure to some very inclement conditions).

All over the grounds, there were branches downed by the wind... then I came across this behemoth:

I'm not good at identifying trees by their bark, and the poor thing has been denuded of leaves for months, but I think it might have been a maple, judging from the bulk of the leaf litter. As you can see, it missed hitting one of our company vehicles, a pickup truck used by our grounds and maintenance staff, by a very small distance. If the tree had fallen at a slightly different angle, it would have smashed this truck and two company vans. As individuals, and as an organization, we were very lucky indeed.

I believe Don Adams has the best characterization of this sort of thing:

Hard to tell due to resolution issues. At a glance it could be a maple. It has that gnarling you see around the base of some maple trunks (usually a Norway), but it has that more vertically inclined bifurcation which you don't tend to see in a Norway, but do see in silver maples. The wood color is consistent with a maple. It's growing in a wetland -- so my guess would be a silver maple.

That storm flooded the basement in D.C. (I was in Virginia at the time).

Ugh, hope you got things cleaned up. Few things are worse than flooding.

Hard to tell due to resolution issues. At a glance it could be a maple. It has that gnarling you see around the base of some maple trunks (usually a Norway), but it has that more vertically inclined bifurcation which you don't tend to see in a Norway, but do see in silver maples. The wood color is consistent with a maple. It's growing in a wetland -- so my guess would be a silver maple.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was a maple. I really have to pay more attention to the general ruck of trees. Each of our sites has a couple of signature trees (a monster maple at my usual site, a giant sycamore at another one, and a cottonwood at the third). I pay more attention to the edible stuff- I know where all of the mulberry, cherry, apple, pear, and quince trees are, and the solitary peach tree). We have a lot of locusts and willows at one site, and a lot of oak and tulip trees at another site. I gotta bone up on my dendrology as well.

About Me

The Big Bad Bald Bastard is a character played by Monsieur _______ of the City of Y______. The role of the Bastard is a handy one to play on subways, walking the streets, and in dive-bars, when being a nerdy, bookish sort is not to one's advantage.